e saved! Life and the future are
now yours! Look around you, we are in Italy. Here you can be free and
happy!'"

"And was not that a good prophecy?" asked Paulo. "Has it not been
fulfilled? Are you not happy?"

"I should be so," sighed Natalie, "could I avoid thinking so often of
that past! Those words which you then spoke to me were the last I ever
heard in that language, which I had always spoken until then, but of
which I know not the name! From that hour you spoke to me in an unknown
tongue, and I felt like a poor deserted orphan, from whom was taken her
last possession, her language!"

"And yet whole peoples have been robbed of that last and dearest
possession!" said Paulo, his brow suddenly darkening, "and not, as in
your case, to save life and liberty, but for the purpose of enslaving
and oppressing them."

Natalie, perceiving the sudden sadness of her friend, attempted to
smile, and, grasping his hand, she said:

"Come, Paulo, we are naughty children, and vex ourselves with vagaries,
while all nature is so cheerful and so replete with divine beauty. Only
see with what glowing splendor the departing sun rests upon the tops of
the cypresses! Ah, it is nowhere so beautiful as here in my dear garden.
This is my world and my happiness! Sometimes, Paulo, it makes me shudder
to think that the walls surrounding us might suddenly tumble down, and
all the tall houses standing behind them, and all the curious people
lounging in the streets, could then look in upon my paradise! That
must be terrible, and yet Marianne tells me that other people live
differently from us, that their houses are not surrounded by walls, and
that no watchman with dogs drives away troublesome visitors from them.
And yet, she says, they smilingly welcome such inconvenient people,
receiving them with friendly words, while they only thank God when they
finally go and leave the occupants in peace. Is it then true, Paulo,
that people can be so false to each other, and that those who live in
the world never dare to speak as they think?"

"It is, alas! but too true, Natalie," said Paulo, with a sad smile.

"Then never let me become acquainted with such a world," said the young
maiden, clinging to Paulo's arm. "Let me always remain here in our
solitude, which none but good people can share with us. For Marianne is
good, as also Cecil, your servant; and Carlo--oh, Carlo would give his
life for me. He is not false, like other people; I can confide i